simple newbie question: personal root server

[Kevin Darcy]

Oliver Wendell Jones wrote:

>I'm trying to set up my own private DNS, disconnected from the net 
>obviously.
>It seems I can get named to work with the root domain, but not with
>delegated domains.  Here's the entry in the conf file for root:
>
>zone "." IN {
>         type master;
>         file "named.root";
>};
>
>Here's the root zone file:
>
>@                       86400   IN      SOA     kyousuke.kasuga. root 
>(2006050601 1800 900 604800 86400)
>                         86400   IN      NS      localhost
>                         86400   IN      NS      manami
>localhost               86400   IN      A       199.62.51.53
>manami                  86400   IN      A       199.62.51.50
>kasuga.                 86400   IN      NS      manami
>                         86400   IN      NS      localhost
>
>"dig . ns" and "dig . soa" return the expected results.  However if I try
>to ask for the nameserver for the delegated domain (kasuga.), i.e.
>"dig kasuga. ns" the dig hangs, and times out trying to contact servers.
>Shouldn't I get a response based upon the root zone file specifying the
>two hosts in the NS records?  Or am I setting up the root zone wrong?
>  
>
For any zone other than the root zone, there are expected to be two sets 
of NS records -- the set at the apex of the zone itself, and the set 
which delegates the zone from its parent zone. The apex set is 
considered to be "better" (more definitive), so that's what recursive 
resolvers will attempt to fetch by default. You can see the delegation 
NS set by doing a *non-recursive* query to the parent server or, if 
security policy allows it, a zone transfer of the parent zone.

                                                                         
                                                   - Kevin